A closer photo of Cheetah as she wakes up from her nap. She has sleepy eyes, and mud on her face from a brief altercation in the creek bed with a curious, young male bear. Unlike with the male bear, Cheetah had no problem getting very close to us humans. She had walked right up to us earlier, and then later settled down near us to take a nap in the grass.

Cheetah has spent much of her life around bear viewing tourists and has become comfortable with their presence. She is quite respectful when approaching people, and will immediately halt and veer away if you tell her “that’s close enough” or “no”. I’m still trying to figure out how to tell her “don’t come any closer, but don’t run off either!”

A healthy Alaskan ecosystem will reveal the tracks of predators. Here, grizzly tracks are bordered in fresh wolf prints. The wolf population has been growing on the coast of Katmai National Park. The wolves use the beach as a highway and they trek the coastline during the few hours of summer darkness.

Bears and wolves compete for food sources. During this past summer, guides witnessed wolves fishing for salmon alongside the grizzly bears on the Katmai coast.

A large, male grizzly used an interesting “splashing” method to fish for salmon. He would leap in the air and land in a big belly flop. The force of his body created a huge splash which on several occasions pulled a handful of salmon up to the surface of the water.

A very young, baby moose nurses. I took this photo from my house in Anchor Point, Alaska. This mother with twins frequented the area around our house, and liked a pond across the street.

Moose babies are vulnerable to predation by bears and wolves. Grizzly bears also prey on adult moose. The first summer I moved to Homer, Alaska two residents watched a grizzly bear take down and kill an adult moose in their driveway. The grizzly quickly ate the highly nutritious heart, liver and other vital organs, then fled the scene out of fear of humans.